My Dearest Most Wonderful Family,
Thank you for the wonderful letter. You all look so good--I love you all so much! It looks like the weather is nice and warm--that is the way it is here as well. Sweaty! Life is great however. The week was a good one; ups and downs, always, but still wonderful. We taught some great lessons and learned some great lessons, so everything is normal (всичко нормално, as the Bulgarians would say). We learned that our dear friend is probably not going to be able to be baptized on the 20th, which was tough, but we are still pushing in forward in faith. The Lord gives us standards for our benefit, even if we don't understand them in the moment. Our work is to develop the faith to live them, then to recognize the blessing. His time will come, hopefully sooner than later! More experiences from this week later.
Mother; it is mission-wide policy to not eat dinner with the members, but from time to time members will leave food in the Church kitchen for the missionaries. We do fine however--Elder Magoffin is a fairly inventive cook, though we don't really have much time to cook. It works out. It sounds like the Soccer season was a good one--I love that quote--it really isn't what is on the outside that counts! It is so true that we are never born goats--of all the things that I have been coming to learn, it is that every person has that light of Christ within them, no matter who they are, or how they may appear. We can all change, we can all follow Christ. How blessed we are to have been given a chance to learn of God's plan for us now, while we are on this Earth. What a precious gift!
Father, thank you for the pictures and the note--I love the image of you sneaking away from the Hospital for a few moments to run down to Red Robin. You truly are a wonderful Father. Thank you for your example to me, I love you so much.
Rees; Shave. Love you!
Paige; way to go, four-point-oh! I am so proud of you, little sister. Just thinking of you driving to the Hospital all by yourself and parking and working with those Medical Files...crazy! You are a beautiful daughter of God, keep choosing the right, I love you so much!
Ronnie, you are one sharp-dressed individual! I love you little brother. Keep loving your little sister (and all your sisters for that matter), and take care of them. Family truly is the most important, it is God's chosen method for us to learn how to become like Him, to perfect ourselves, and to be happy. Keep being wonderful!
Lizzie, you are adorable. Period. Let that shining smile be a reason for people to ask you who you are, and why you are that happy. In Bulgarian, you are лъчизарна (luh-chi-zar-na), which means radiant, or beaming. I love you so much!
The importance of meekness and humility has really stuck out to me this week. As a missionary, life is pretty much just one big humbling experience (in the best way), but it really stood out to me in our interaction with a neat woman that we met this week. Her whole life, she had been searching for who God is, for what the purpose of life is, for where we came from and where we are going. She read the Bible, she looked in other places, and finally she felt that she received her answer that Eastern Philosophy, especially Yoga, was the truth. As we sat and talked with her about the Plan of Salvation, and she brought up her wonderful and well thought out questions, the spirit was felt, and we began to explain to her how she could only know if those things that we taught were true through prayer, and through the confirmation of the Holy Ghost. After a few seconds silence, she looked at as, and said something along the lines of "I have been asking that question for years, and I already felt that I received my answer. You are saying that I should ask again?". She has a desire to know what is the truth from God, so she said she would ask again, but it really struck me how key a role meekness plays in our conversion--The Lord is always willing to reveal to us the truth, as long as we are willing to make the room in ourselves, to be open to Him. I am so grateful for the witness of the Spirit that has confirmed to me that this Church is true, that this is His Gospel, and that here I will find the most happiness. I may not understand everything, but that I DO know, and will never be able to deny it.
I love you all so much! Have a great week!
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